2002 World Equestrian Games

The German PR Machine

Thomas Hartwig is the Head of Public Relations for the Deutsche Reiterliche Vereinigung EV (German Equestrian Organization), which is the country's national federation. The federation handles nearly 70 different equestrian organizations ranging from riding clubs to breeders and includes what the Europeans call 'topsport'. The buildings that house the organizations are all located within steps of each other, Hartwig explained, giving him easy access to information about everything equestrian in Germany.

As an information service about horses, Hartwig's office has a variety of different jobs, covering a broad spectrum from answering questions about horses to providing contacts to riders for journalists. Hartwig can also quickly relate the quantity and scope of information his organization deals with – 40 pages per week are distributed to 1,500 journalists, and more than 2.7 million people have visited over 13 million pages on the DRV website. For the World Equestrian Games and other Championships, the organization is also involved in publishing its own materials, including the four-color magazine-quality brochures that are distributed to the press.